Remembering Cricket

Saw this one while browsing....



This conversation is taken from one of my favorite movies of 2007 - Chennai 600028.

for people who dont understand tamil, sorry, the fun is lost if i try to explain the joke. so forget this post.

The Red Revolution

Vodafone is finally here. The transition has begun and its very evident. I am just seeing that Vodafone is painting the whole city RED.

First it was Maxtouch. Then it became Orange in 1999 - the color was orange, changed to Hutch in 2002, but still retained its color. Later in 2005 it became pink and now its RED.

The Pug is still around and now its inside a red colored kennel. Imagine the kind of branding exercise that needs to happen for such a transformation. So many million subscribers and there shouldnt be any trouble. Hutch is India's second largest mobile phone operator and Vodafone is the world's largest mobile phone operator. The branding makeover is estimated to cost the company atleast INR 500 crores.

What I like about Vodafone is the simplicity and the message in their ads. I remember this one ad I have seen in the UK and it was just amazing.



Consumers want to get more out of the present moment, and Vodafone can enrich that experience with its products and services. A campaign thought that was encapsulated in the ‘make the most of Now’ endline. This TV execution launches the Now campaign using an analogy of someone who has to make the most out of the present moment - the Mayfly.

Cross Talk?

Hello Readers... I got this email in my inbox today from I dont know who. Just sharing it with all of you. Read it and forget it.

=============================================================
Dear Balaji,

Congratulations again!!!

You were telling me that you would decide about PWC or not before next week. I could see that you were bit skeptical in the morning whether it is best for you or not. I just feel like sharing few things, which I felt, after talking to you.

As a third person (especially I don't have much knowledge in your field), I see PWC as a big company where you can learn lot, as it is an epicenter of knowledge.

But, I don't know whether this is the dream job for you or not; whether it is a best package or not; whether you will hold more responsibilities or not; whether it is better working environment or not. I think you should know it better than anyone in this world from the available information because you are smart guy who knows about yourself.

Whatever be the case, I have confidence in you (from the way I see You) that you will grow for what you are. You have talent and you will definitely deserve for what you are either shortly or may be in few months or years; certainly you will grow to the best. My support is always there for you; and please feel free to discuss anything if I can be helpful to you.

May be a logical discussion (either to yourself or someone whom you adore or someone who is not biased) will increase clarity in the decision that you will make. I always try to write what I have in mind to make the picture clear rather than having many things in mind. Above are some suggestions which I follow; and may be you have better ways of decision making.

Best of luck for your new endeavor and we are always there to back up your proceedings.

Urs
Srini

P.S.See you soon during Diwali

Poem: Blue Crush

A bright sunny day it was
mid october if the date is a want
the day had come to an end
the bell rang; that was the sign

he rushed through the busy corridor
in his usual stride
past that small nest
where the chirpy birds reside

he stopped there
for he witnessed what he could not believe
a damsel who was never around before
coiffure that reminded him of just rapunzel next
a little beam across his face
he asked himself - is it her?

feelings he had deep inside
he wasnt sure, so he had to hide
she did not know, she had no clue
the secret was stored in mind for a while

walking on the road
towards the bus stop
he thought their eyes met
she looked away
maybe she was scared, he thought

he took the chance
for he knew time would never tell
the road bend was the spot
no one around
silence the only companion

he looked in her eyes
she seemed surprised and confused
yet he felt good
wanting to tell her things from his heart
"I" - that was all he could
then he smiled and she smiled back

it didnt matter to him
it was a wonderful day in his life

Sethusamudram

I generally dont spend time on all these political affairs hitting the stands. But this one caught my attention. For once, I felt that Dr.MK was trying to make some economic sense (dont know what political gains he has out of this).

This project, that aims to reduce the distance travelled by the ships, has seen so many governments that perhaps no other project in India has seen. The first proposal for this project was produced in 1860. As I was doing my research on this project, I noticed one issue that read "This project cannot be completed in 3 yrs and it will take atleast 30 yrs". Even if the government had dredged one kilometer every year, considering the way in which things move here, we would have completed this project much before independence. Ok, you can always blame it on the British. Maybe it was because of them that it got delayed. But after that? Well, I guess most of the people involved in economic development then, were so confused that they thought - we dont even know what to do in land, why go to the sea?

Coming back to present situation. You know that if people want to just stop something, then they can blow it just totally out of proportion. So a bunch of environmentalists came in and complained about protection of corals and species.

Then came the stalwarts with their evidence of Rama's bridge to Lanka being present there. Especially the BJP Leaders, who generally do not have any logic in what they propose to say about Hinduism. The bridge dates back around 3500 yrs. According to the Vedic system, Ramayana happened about 880,148 years ago. And it was the Treta Yuga. After every Yuga, the world is created, destroyed and re-created. Ok, lets not confuse ourselves with mythology and carbon dating. by preserving that portion of the sea, what are we going to get. Not even one person can take a photograph with the bridge in the background. nor can they go to that point and tell their friends, can you see below - thats the bridge lord rama built.

Shouldnt we be more focused on economic benefits at this point? If someone tells that the projected profits or savings from this project is not correct or the amount of traffic is not going to increase because of this, then its quite acceptable. thats the direction in which we have to think. someone tells that the pre-tax IRR of the project is 2.6%. Thats the exact point to note. And then we keep wasting time on doing some processions and meetings, taking up the time of the public, media etc. And blame each other!

Interesting Read

according to scientists, females are predominantly attracted to 'weedier' types, who look 'kind and trustworthy'.

Jerry Hall says - to keep a man happy, a woman must be a cook in the kitchen, a lady in the drawing room and a slut in the bedroom.

For a woman to be truly happy with a man, he would need to be a hunk in the bedroom,a cook in the kitchen, a vision of machismo in public, a wimp in arguments(but not too much of one, as he must gauge the right times for listening sympathetically and conceding absolute defeat, as opposed to the times when the only correct thing to do is tumble you crossly into bed), and easily capable of fixing everything from broken dishwashers to awkward work dilemmas, without being in any way controlling in matters which you can handle perfectly well without his great clodding interference.

while females worldwide struggle to be Superwoman, what they want for themselves is Superman. Clark Kent for the wimpy days of the month; a rippling superhero on demand.

the more obvious point is that men and women are, and have always been, deeply ill-suited to a lifetime's monogamy. The idea of trying to spend decades with one other person is both loony and doomed. It can't work; we should all stay alone. But that point is a bit depressing, so let's be glad that these 'scientists' are invariably talking nonsense and best ignored.

Little Miss Sunshine

Finally, I got a chance to see this Oscar Nominated movie. It was awesome. The cute little girl in the movie, Olive, surely wants to be the prepubescent beauty queen called Little Miss Sunshine. The movie begins with Olive practising the moves in front of the TV.

This is the Hoover family - totally dysfunctional. The dad (Kinnear) is a motivational speaker. His nine ways of doing something doesnt get him anywhere. But he still believes that he can make it big and sell books based on his theory. His daughter Olive (Abigail) is also a great pipe dreamer. She, with her not so great looks and tiny pot belly, has this great confidence of winning the crown. Brother Dwayne (Dano) is preparing to join the Air Force and is silent for most parts of the movie. Toni Collette is the mom in the movie and she is depressed with her husband. throughout the movie, she tries to keep her family together. She comes across as a supportive mother who is confident and strong.

Grandpa played by Arkin is an amazing character. He does use the F word so many times in the movie that it becomes very uncomfortable. But he makes one comment thats perhaps the best one in the whole movie - "A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning he doesn't even try."

Steve Carrell is the mom's brother, the uncle, who gets rejected by his gay friend, tries to commit suicide and then ends up in the house. throughout the movie, he supports the family in what they do, but still keeps his serious face. I dont even remember him smiling a bit.

The movie is all about these 5 people getting on a VW Wagon and heading to California from Albequerque, the events that happen on the way and how they pull it together. suddenly dwayne realises that he is color blind. knowing that he cannot join the force, he cries hard. grandpa takes an overdose of drugs and kicks the bucket.

but the essence of the movie is the togetherness that it creates. the ultimate feeling for everyone in the movie is Olive's participation in the contest and they would go and do anything to see her on stage.

best part - Olive goes on stage and dedicates a song to her grandpa. when quizzed about where her grandpa is, she innocently says - grandpa is in the trunk of our car.

Workplace never gets better

So the next thing I did was to enrol in the Fitness One run gym at the office. Although the name of the Gym suggests a good brand, inside here its like yet another street gym with few standards. I dont understand, why the Gym fee has to be this low. Its actually less than a third of what you have to pay outside. And because of this, the facilities are quite bad. And the music sucks! Big Time. It just spoils your mood for a good workout when you hear that.

The most and ridiculously funny part is the dress code. You are not supposed to wear a sleeveless t-shirt to the gym. And this rule was given by the HR Department here. I still havent got the point.

Found this on another blog and thought I must let you all know. Click Here

And the next thing is about people just pushing their work to you. So this is right now happening to me. People above just transfer all the junk work to you and they keep waiting for you to let them know. In the middle, there is nothing called a follow. All they do is write an email and keep quiet for 10 days. At the end, jump at it and whatever. Still the problem of doing something because someone used to do it before exists around here. Not much of reasoning.

News spreads quite fast I say - my project was running off-track for a while. Luckily, we managed to get it back to running on time. That was after I spent two whole days trying to explain why we didnt deliver on time. So, the first question that your peers or seniors ask you (with a dirty smirk on their face) is "I heard that your project is delayed and the client has raised an alarm". All they want to know is whether your ass is on fire. Few months back, there was a huge appreciation that we were doing extremely well. Not many people bothered. And people have their own egos. A notion that just because they have spent donkey's years in the Services Industry, they know it all.

And the non-stick gum could be in stores by 2008! Its getting too technical. So you can read more about it here. Click Here. Please do not consider this as a filler to my blog space. Its just my initiative to let you know those interesting facts from around the world.

I still remember a gum incident that happened in school. I think I was in 10th grade or maybe 9th. A friend of mine was a big fan of the BIG FUN bubble gum. Remember this brand? This brand was literally an our time brand. The Babool and CenterFresh and whatever we have now are all late entrants. Anyway, so out of doign something for fun, this friend pulled out the gum and stuck it on another friend's head. You know these things. The stuff they put inside are so strong that it just got stuck completely. It gave no way. The next day my friend had to get a haircut done. That one place on his head looked like a small crater.

Poem: Her Shadow

She entered the temple hall
white frock and jasmine flowers
black walls and incense sticks

raising her hands upto the sky
indirectly she said "amma*, please hold me high"

with palms together, she looked ahead
not knowing what she was seeing
a belief that was innocent

minutes later they walked out
into the surroundings held by the wall
horizon trying to eat the orange ball

she looked down and surprise!
a mythical figure had taken her side
confused but not afraid, she stood
thoughts in her mind of different kinds

three steps to the right
the dark friend was still by her side
three steps to the left
and nothing had changed

suddenly amma lifted her
and the dark friend was gone
she wondered where


* amma - tamil word meaning mom

What happened to Orkut

Orkut was simple, plain and nice. I liked it the way it was. It wasnt like all those Beta Sites trying to do too many things at one go.

And then, the magicians rather product managers from Google came, said Abracadabra - changed it.

Now, the look is still like the Old one, but not quite like that. It feels more cramped. When I look at Orkut now, my profile feels claustrophobic, cluttered. I have no words to say.

No, its not the fact about taking time to get used to all of this. If it did not appeal the first time, then its probably not going to at all.

And today, there are other features. Like who updated and what was updated. This is a copy from Facebook.

The most innovative company of today has started copying now?

Chak De India

As promised, I begin my review of Chak De India. Saw this movie yesterday with a packed audience in the Sathyam Complex in Chennai, in their largest screen.

What a wonderful feeling it was. A different essence of patriotism, for the country and for the game. I had read a good number of reviews of Chak De. So, I did have a lot of expectation about the movie. Nothing was contrary to my belief. In fact, the movie did take me by surprise at a lot of instances and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The fact that every game is important and its the interest of the players that matters is evident. This movie went on to show everyone that there is much more than CRICKET for India.

Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) is not really the hero of this movie. He is rather the leader who is also a facilitator. The main characters to watch for are the girls who come from different parts of the country for a common cause (well they dont initially, but they change themselves over the course of the movie) - the spirit of sportsmanship and the fact that they represent the country.

This film is a classic example of managing difficult teams and people. There are several instances where SRK provides motivation and drives the girls to victory. As the story progresses, we can see a leader emerging from each player on the field. Togetherness makes a great difference.

SRK is not the coach who shows the girls the easy way out. He is harsh and a true task master. He treats every girl on the field like a man. No sacrifices just because you are a woman. If required you have to fight it the hard way. And the girls who form the cast are just like that. We see that they don't get upset or weak because of all this. They are rash, come across like warriors, but they do understand each other's feelings and respect that too. They live for each other and are compassionate.

Then there are the men on the board who drink tea and eat biscuits to keep criticizing the women. I guess this is what really happens at the top. These people just look for the money and not the talent. And this could be true even with BCCI or the Indian Olympics Committee. What purpose does it serve in having someone who is politically strong as a president or a senior member of such organizations. What is the value add he or she is going to bring?

We still haven't learned those lessons. The London Olympic Committee chairman is Lord Seb Coe who was an Olympic Champion in his time. But we have a bunch of good-for-nothing fellows sitting there.

Coming back to the movie. The government officials are stunned by the women's game and they are forced to sponsor them. And what more, the underdogs win. The second half is just hockey matches between different countries and its really fast, but exciting. There is one part where NAIK calls home and says "Marke aayenge par haarke nahi aayenge" or something like that, which translates as "We'll return dead, but we'll not return as losers". My eyes were full when I heard that. Those few words had so much power and emotion packed inside that it created an uncontrolled burst of happiness within me and I was happy that I was able to share the same enthusiasm that the players displayed on the screen. It was total involvement.

And this movie was inspired by the Women's Hockey Team that won the Gold in 2002. Another interesting read on the same lines is the HINDU Article. Thanks to Neha Viswanathan for these links.